The best mobile phone plans for seniors in Australia (and the worst)

There are plenty of benefits to signing up for a seniors card. In NSW alone, there are hundreds of services and retailers that offer deals and discounts for seniors card holders but in the tight-fisted world of telecommunications, there is only one provider officially affiliated with the seniors discount program: Pennytel.

There are more seniors discounts available from providers like Telstra and Vodafone but the options are slim and not always the best value, despite the discounted price.

Let’s take a look at the seniors discounts available for mobile plans in Australia and your next best (and more affordable) options.

If you’re looking for home phone and internet discounts, head over to our guide on Seniors discounts on phone and internet plans.

If you're on the hunt for a seniors discount on your mobile plan, there are a few things you need to know and a few questions you need to ask first. Firstly, how much mobile data do you need? If you don't need much at all and you're more interested in saving money, you can start at the very top of the list below with the cheapest SIM-only plans with a 28-day recharge period.

If you're after a lot of data, you can get a 10% discount off any Vodafone Infinite plan, including the 50GB plan which comes down to $44.10 per month. With that said, there are other providers that offer even better value on high-data plans without a seniors discount. For example, Circles.Life offers 30GB for $20 per month for the first 6 months.

At the very bottom of the list, there's Telstra's Upfront Mobile Starter plan, which gives a $19/month discount for concession card holders. The Telstra Starter Mobile plan might be discounted to $31 per month but it still offers some of the worst value on the entire market with only 5GB of data included, even when compared to full price plans.  We recommend avoiding this plan and opting for a cheaper Telstra MVNO if the leading network coverage is important to you.

Here’s a short list of cheap mobile plans for seniors on the Telstra and Telstra wholesale network that cost less than Telstra’s Upfront Starter Mobile plan, but offer more monthly data:

Pennytel offers a 12-month 10% discount for Seniors Card holders on four of its mobile plans.

Here are Pennytel’s seniors mobile plans:

• 5GB per month with unlimited calls and text to standard Australian numbers: $18 per month for 12 months, then $20 per month thereafter.
• 12GB per month with unlimited calls and text to standard Australian numbers: $21.60 per month for the first year, then $24 per month thereafter.
• 25GB per month with unlimited calls and text to standard Australian numbers and unlimited international calls to 15 countries: $26.10 per month for the first year, then $29 per month thereafter.
• 32GB per month with unlimited calls and text to standard Australian numbers, unlimited international calls to 15 countries and 5G speeds: $32.40 per month for the first 12 months, then $36 per month thereafter.

Pennytel is a Telstra MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), which means you can expect almost as much coverage as a Telstra customer. Telstra MVNOs like Pennytel lease part of the Telstra network (known as the Telstra wholesale network) to provide their customers with mobile coverage. For more information, head over to our guide to Australian MVNOs.

Vodafone’s seniors discount is a little more straightforward. If you’re a senior card holder, you can get 10% off your monthly fees on any Vodafone Infinite plan. The same 10% discount can be applied to Small and Large Modem and Tablet plans above $20 per month.

So the $49 for 50GB plan becomes $44.10 for 50GB, the $59 for 300GB plan becomes $53.10 for 300GB and the $69 for 500GB plan becomes $62.10 for 500GB. Here’s the list of Vodafone Infinite plans seniors card holders can get a monthly 10% on:

Next up, Telstra offers an Upfront Starter Mobile plan to anyone who holds a valid Health Care Card.

The Upfront Starter Mobile plan includes a recurring $19 per month discount on the $50 Starter Mobile Plan. For $31 per month, that gets you 5GB of data per month and unlimited calls and text to Australian numbers, which is not great value.

Whichever way you look at it, 5GB for $50 or $31 is terrible value. For comparison, the next plan in Telstra’s range is the 50GB Basic Upfront Plan for $65 per month. On Telstra’s Starter Mobile Plan, you’re paying around $6.20 per GB (with the discount), whereas you’re paying roughly $1.30 per GB on the Basic Upfront plan.

If you’re a seniors card holder who wants or needs a mobile service on the Telstra network, there are much cheaper MVNOs available. Tangerine, for example, offers 12GB of monthly data for $22 per month. Here’s a list of plans from Telstra network providers sorted by monthly price:

Neither Optus or Optus MVNOs offer any official mobile plans for seniors but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a great deal. In fact, some Optus MVNOs offer better value on mobile plans than most of the seniors discounts listed above.

Below you will find a short list of the most popular plans and deals available on the Optus network at the time of writing.